Participation in this conference can contribute to your continuing professional education.

Description: The present system of fundamental rights protection within the EU has developed on an ad hoc basis, mainly through the European Court of Justice’s case law. Lately, growing attention whas been paid to providing specific rights protection instruments in the Union through the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the catalogue of fundamental rights in a constitutional Treaty and the Union’s adhesion to the ECHR.

While the actors in focus have traditionally been the courts – the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice and the national courts – a new actor has entered the stage in the form of the Fundamental Rights Agency, which became operative in 2007. This course aims at examining the current state of fundamental rights protection within the Union, the existing legal instruments and actors, including the European Court of Human Rights, as well as their interaction. The current challenges for fundamental rights protection within the Union, especially within the Third Pillar and in the wake of a Constitutional Treaty, will also be addressed.